Nicola Monopoli: Electroacoustic Music

What makes these manipulations your favourite?

The possibility to develop a sound and create a piece starting from a little variety of sounds. For example to take 10 vocal samples of 10 seconds each and create a 10 minutes piece from them (with a lot of different sounds). Also is very nice to be able to generate sounds that are very very different from the sampled sound.

1. How would you describe the type of music that you make?

2. If you had to use the genre categories to describe your music, which would it be?

3. What types of sounds do you like to use when you compose?

I use a lot of vocals. But I also like to record many kinds of sounds to sample (mainly paper, plastic, wood, etc.).

4. What makes these sounds your favourite?

I really like to use vocals. I like to sample vocals because a voice can produce a great variety of different sounds (spoken words, noises, breath, etc.) and is maybe the most expressive and communicating instrument that we have.

5. How do you go about starting or coming up with an idea for a composition? Do you personally use a similar approach each time? Or is it always different?

I usually have a starting idea but the approach can be very different every time.

6. Which composers /musicians are an inspiration to you?

Bach, Purcell, Beethoven, Ligeti, Donatoni.

7. What is it about this music that engages you so much?

It has infinite possibilities of expression and invention.

8. Could you pick a short section from one of your own pieces and describe how you created it?

This section has been created only with the recursive sampling (granulation) of vocal materials, all…, the basses, the percussions, the aggressive sounds, the doppler effected vocals, etc.

9. What were you trying to convey to the listener in this excerpt?

Yes, I would like to create a sort of ritual mood connected to a received or given judgment.

10. If you were giving some general advice to someone who was beginning to compose a piece (a young person aged 11-14) what would it be? What is the most important thing to remember when composing? (This advice might be technical or aesthetic).

Start with thinking to a non really concrete or clear idea of what you are going to do (e.g. I want to create an opposition between two kind of materials, I want to create a percussive piece, etc.)

Do a plan of what you are going to do.

When you start to compose you will need to adjust your plan many times.

Especially for electronic music, try to listen what you have created, try to understand where the sounds are going, create a “direction” in the materials.